Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
curryage
Hands down, the best Universal Century series ever told! While it is true that you can watch this without any prior Gundam knowledge, you will surely be missing a lot of nuances. Watching previous series, namely 0079, Z, ZZ, Char's, 0080 and 0083, is indeed needed to maximize the immersion. Highly advisable to watch all UC series that I have mentioned.
The Origin achieved writing an epic Gundam story without Gundam in action. The pacing is great, the story is consistent, characters are complex. Everything that frustrates me on previous UC series was fixed here and even improved. The hand drawn animation + 3DGI combination was well executed. We can understand the scale of this vast war in space by visually telling how many fleets and mobile suites are on the battlefield. This kind of detai…
Read at the sourceHeliosphan95
Gundam the origin is complete and total fanfiction written by people who want to convince you that Char is a lot cooler, colder and cunning than he actually is. Its this Light Yagamification of Char that gives people the wrong impression of who he is as a character and often makes no sense. The cold cunning psychopath portrayed in this OVA which gets innocent people killed is not the same Char who mourns the loss of his men numerous times in 079 or the more gentle guiding figure to Kamille in Zeta. This show wants to make Char more like Light Yagami or Johan than any version of himself. On top of this the OVA also takes the chance to fellate his abilities at every opportunity. They make Char good at literally everything naturally. I mean of course why wouldn't he be able to pilot a guntank…
Read at the sourcek-0da
This show gets a lot better if you just pretend this is all Casval's diary.
Origin is not a good introduction to UC Gundam. It's not even a good introduction to Char. This entire review is just going to be me being a pain in the ass otaku, but in an age where anime is practically mainstream, mecha fans are the last bastion of truly annoying weeaboos.
Animation is stunning. Music is also stunning. Origin captures Yoshikazu Yasuhiko art wonderfully. I am particularly a fan of the facial expressions and how hair moves in this. Everyone is beautifully expressive, and I love it. Mobile suit animation is also pretty good. Most complain about CGI mech suits, and while 2D animation is gorgeous, it's not like CGI isn't. Explosions in this one also look really good. Music is great, not a fan of…
Read at the sourceNo_One_Yet
This serie is useless. As a Gundam fan, I can say it's useless.
Every Gundam series try to tell something, in the original trilogy, it's about the responsibilities of the first aggressor, the oppression of the new generation, the feeling of vengence, etc. In SEED it's about what's a human and that the most important are the feelings inside, in IBO it'll be about a life of battle that is better than a life of salvery, etc, etc.
What tells us THE ORIGIN? "Well, this is this guy and he is kinda crazy" Wow, awesome and you had nothing more? In this rich universe that is UC, there was nothing more? And this is the serie that is recommended by all these people to start the saga? Bullshit, you better use your time to watch the original serie or any other Gundam show that looks cool for you becaus…
Read at the sourceKrenZane
*Begin in the future*
~~
Modern animation for a story almost 40 years old already, and a prequel at that. One can't help but be in awe at the longevity seemingly exhaustless for the Gundam franchise. I get spawning shows casting different characters from different timelines or Sides, or another sort of universe if there are (I wouldn't put it past them) across the years due to the inherent expanse of the series, but revisiting the origins from such a long time ago and amassing more important details so as to increase its breadth is quite simply a power move. A fresh new look for the ancestral narrative, The Origin offers vibrance (at times coming off as comical, thus out-of-place) and clarity for the fleshed-out history of the One-Year War.
The Principality of Zeon always had that air o…
Read at the sourceNoahboy
This is a beautiful love letter to fans of the original Gundam series, and as such you should be familiar with that series before watching this one. This series does so much to develop the characters and setting of Gundam, I am amazed at how every member of the Zabi family in particular are given more depth as characters, this applies to most of the cast as well but the Zabis stood out to me the most. The animation is also very good, there's a lot of CG used, but it fits very well and I rarely found it to be distracting. This being an series of OVAs, the pacing is absolutely on point, it's never boring and never throws too much at you too quickly. I really like how much of the brutality that made the original Mobile Suit Gundam stand out to me is present here as well, the war isn't romanti…
Read at the sourceThe_Namer
The Universal Century Gundam timeline has always had an air of Game of Thrones in space (or more accurately the other way around, since Tomino was doing this decades before Martin). Nowhere is this more clearly felt than in Gundam: The Origin. By setting the bulk of the story in a time of relative peace, we see the political machinations, plotting, and betrayals come to the fore. It's riveting stuff, sprawling across an interplanetary stage. While Casval/Edouard/Char/Quattro (seriously, how many names does this guy have?) is the main focus, plenty of time is spent fleshing out many other familiar faces from the One Year War. It's nice to see some of the women finally have their time in the spotlight too, especially Sayla and Hamon, who were somewhat underserved by the original series and r…
Read at the sourceEpicBlargman
I was extremely impressed with Gundam: The Origin. I was always curious to know what happened before the start of the main story in the Universal Century timeline in the Gundam Series. This review is spoiler free and I will be short and sweet in regards to each aspect of the anime.
What really made this anime for me was the fact that its a prequel origin story (origin story's and prequels being my favorite when it comes to shows and writing) the anime delves into every single character and in-universe event before the 1979 anime starts; it also gives characters more depth than before especially with one of the main focuses of the anime: Char Aznable
The anime uses a mix of 2D art & animation while also using 3D animation. The 2D backgrounds look so good & characters are drawn akin to the…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Like everyone else on MAL, I also enjoyed Gundam: The Origin. The CG looks great. The action set pieces are amazing. It's a series made by Gundam fans, for Gundam fans. In other words, this is fanservice done right. At the same time, I do feel it's become a tad overrated. A lot people are calling this the best Gundam series and it's really not. I might not receive many helpfuls for doing this, but I feel like I HAVE to say some of this or else I'll go insane.
First we need to go into a little background. Gundam is one of anime's most beloved and influential franchises. However, its sheer size and the number of different entries and alternate continuities make it a very daunting franchise to get into. Sort of like anime's Dr. Who in that regard. Where do I even start?
First, we need to go…
Read at the sourceGatsu-chan
Alright! This series was my introduction to Gundam, as recommended by many people. Before watching this I had no view or idea of what Gundam was and what was in store for me. I am happy to say I am overjoyed after watching this. The animation and everything was amazing and very enjoyable. I can say after viewing this OVA I am now a fan of Gundam. I am very impressed with the OVA's ability to capture the viewer, and make me go," Whoa!" I found myself quickly becoming attached to the cast and caring about what happens next and what is planned to happen. The awesomeness of Gundam is captured excellently with this series and I would recommend watching this to any anime fan!
Read at the sourceKungSour
SS Review – Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
(Short and Sour)
Before I start this review I would like to give my stance on Gundam, in other words where I am with the series and how familiar I am with it. I have next to no knowledge of this franchise…I have not watched anything Gundam related besides Gundam Build Fighters which I watched on a dare from a friend. But I don’t consider that to be anything really "main series" Gundam related seeing as it’s based solely on Gunpla which is model Gundams. With that knowledge I decided to watch this as it’s a prequel to the original series and it has more modern animation so it was easier to watch for me. (Nothing against old animation just some series don’t age very well and are harder to watch now than they used to be for me, Dragon Ball Z is a go…
Read at the sourceSlaceTheDark
Welcome to my third review. After the first 2 I am finally giving a review to something outstanding. This review is about the ONA 'Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin'.
MSG: Origin is animated by the well-known studio Sunrise who have been very successful with the Gintama series and Gundam series which this ONA is part of. The ONA consists of 6 episodes who at the start circle around half an hour and later jump up to around and hour and 20 minutes or runtime.
Story: As the name already suggests this ONA depicts the origin of Gundam that we know of, specifically the birth and background of the first Gundam as well as the birth of iconic Gundam character Char Aznable.
The story revolves around the siblings Casval and Artesia Rem Deikun, children of Zeon Zum Deikun who wants to make humans livi…
Read at the sourceThedude3445
Really shows the limitations of directly adapting a manga series, having all the best and worst moments thrown in together with no regard as to how it's going to play out in a new medium. Someday Japanese anime companies are going to realize that 100% faithfully adapting a comic into TV format doesn't actually always work, because one medium has sound and motion while the other has panel spacing and static imagery. Really, there were so many moments in these six Gundam: The Origin movies where they could have messed around with the pacing, or ignored the narration in favor of visual storytelling, or just done something creative with the fact that this is no longer a comic book.
That aside, these movies are great because Gundam is great. As a prequel series (don't watch this unless you've…
Read at the sourceManthors
[Edit] The only other Gundam that I gave the highest score was Iron-Blooded Orphans. Now I must give to Gundam: The Origin, too. As a Gundam fan, I watch everything Gundam-related, but few get the highest score. This is an outstanding OVA series, with an amazing story. I`ll tell you all about bellow, but I already warn you that you must be familiar with the Universal Century from Gundam, to get the full experience.
Story: First, I must tell you that you need to know about the Universal Century (UC) storyline from the Gundamverse. If you are not familiar with the UC, you can still enjoy, since this is basically the first part of the whole story (not by release, but chronologically). However, if you are familiar you will get the full experience, instead of just a basic enjoyment, you will r…
Read at the sourceGundroog
Gundam Origin to me is close to being a perfect prequel. Before someone gets up in their arms about Origin technically coming from a manga that’s a full on retelling of the MGS 0079 story and therefore being more of a spin-off than a prequel, I think they decided to cut it off before the events of the TV show because that’s where some more noticeable deviations start. However prior to that it roots itself strongly in the material people already know with only minor deviations that in my opinion don’t undermine what it adds to the universe.
As such, in this review I’ll treat it as a proper prequel rather than AU or a spin-off.
Origin opens up with a in the familiar 0079 with a few minutes long space battle where Zeon mobile suits completely dominate over EF spaceships, that’s the Battle of…
Read at the sourcess25690
Before I truly start with this review I must say that Char Aznable is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction and before I watched the last two episodes, I was ready to tear this show to shreds because of it’s awful portrait of the Char Aznable character, fortunately the last two episodes were so good that the show went from a 4 to a 7.
Story and Characters:
MS Gundam:The Origin is the tale of the beginning of the One Year War and the rise of “the Red Comet” Char Aznable from his childhood till mere minutes before the beginning of the Original Mobile Suit Gundam. When it comes to the first objective of the anime, which is to show the start of the One Year War, it definitely accomplished this objective. There were so many things to cover, like the creation of the mobile suits and…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is an ode to excellence, an art habitually outdoing itself. It is the epitome of what Gundam is and was, and is the type of work only a master can craft. Origin is cinematic brilliance, and one of the finest in modern manga adapting and modern anime storytelling. As such, it is as charming and emotionally evocative as the franchise has ever been, continually asserting itself among the best animated series this decade has to offer.
It would be unwise to herald such a title as absolute perfection; there are blemishes in this magnificent work of art. The questionable overreliance on 3D CGI can be off-putting when non-mechanical objects rendered in such a style look worse than Dozle in a car accident. Additionally, the film series stumbles choppily at first bef…
Read at the sourceRikuson1
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin/機動戦士ガンダムTHE ORIGIN Review
Story (10/10) Masterpiece
The main purpose of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is to setup the origin story to not just the Gundam but the entire Universal Century's story and all of the characters, protagonists and antagonist that play major roles in the 1979's original Gundam anime which kickstarts the whole Gundam franchise in the first place. With that being said this 6 episode OVA I felt did a wonderful job at introducing the whole of Universal Century to the viewer. But obviously coming from myself a person who is already quite knowledgeable to the universe damn near every character that was introduced I already knew about and just getting more backstory on them is just a treat for someone and people like me. As far as it's p…
Read at the sourcegravediggernalk
PSA: This is a prequel; please watch AFTER you watch the original series
As far as how it adapts the story, it does a very good job adapting the prequel story-pieces of the manga adaptation, "The Origin," and I definitely recommend it to anyone who has seen the original series, especially if they're about to re-watch it.
If you consider the early-UC timeline to be "The Story of Amuro Ray and Char Aznable," then this sets the stage perfectly: It takes you from "before their time," through their childhood and adolescence, and finishes you off perfectly with all of the main players taking their places for the beginning of the first episode of the original series. It definitely focuses more on Char than it does on Amuro, but, looking at the early-UC timeline, Char IS the character whose sto…
Read at the sourceKarhu
'Gundam Origin' is the best thing that has yet happened to the Gundam franchise. The series is so different from all the other Gundams, and so successful at what it does that it appears to be more similar to 'Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex' and 'Legend of the Galactic Heroes' than it is similar to other Gundams.
This time around our story does NOT center around bunch of kids who fights against each others with super robots, and question their morality after falling in love with enemy kids. And when people lose their families, they do NOT get over it in mere 10 minutes like they do in the alternative version, the original Mobile Suit Gundam. No. This time our story centers around politics and military tactics, and comes off exactly as mature and realistic as is possible in the ani…
Read at the source